Progress Thread Slow Boat To China

Well I decided to make some subframe connectors tonight.

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Some of the welds came out nice, others.... (I'll be really technical here) - others seemed to be full of air and "deflated" as I went, leaving a bunch of little holes in the bead. (the first two pictures show what I mean with the little holes). Since my technique has been under scrutiny lately, I'm offering up pictures of my work in hopes that I'll get some constructive criticism on what to adjust to make the welds better.

I adjusted the wire speed and voltage to no avail. Its a Hobart 220v MIG with 75/25 mix gas, and its incredibly simple to use, just seems to pick and choose when it wants to make nice beads.

The pinholes are from dirt/oil. It's called a gas inclusion,..It's exactly like a fish eye in paint,..and for the exact same reason. The metal you were welding may have had some coating on it as well that caused the reaction.
 
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The holes in the welds are known as porosity, and are exactly that, holes in the weld filler causing the material added to be porous. This can be caused by a few different things, mostly from improper amounts of shielding gas. where is your regulator set at? is there a breeze or fan blowing while your working? Even a small fan has enough power to blow the shielding gas away from the area you are welding causing this.
 
The regulator is set somewhere between 15 and 20 lbs. My only thought was that low bottle pressure was causing it - Im down to around 1500 PSI.... Someone forgot to close the valve one night.

I did have the fans off too.
 
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Here is an example without porosity. This was done on the roof of a building welding a Drycooler down to the roof. I had to build a cardboard tent to stop the wind but had decent results for a 110v mig welder.
 
The regulator is set somewhere between 15 and 20 lbs. My only thought was that low bottle pressure was causing it - Im down to around 1500 PSI.... Someone forgot to close the valve one night.

I did have the fans off too.
I usually run mine at 15, and i'll run the bottle down to 300 or so before I'm worried about filling it
 
At one point in time, there was a turbo build going on here. Unfortunately, a new job 6 months ago has hoovered all spare funds and time as well. I've been trying to muster some motivation lately to get back into the garage, but there's always something else going on (or I'm exhausted). Anyway, I went out tonight to make my headers.

First step was hacking off the flange:

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Then clean the metal:

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Then weld the V-band flange on:

...oh... Forgot to take that pic...


Then I cut off the EGR flange and patched it:

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And Voila, turbo headers:

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I need to keep plugging away at this. Got lotsa parts to install and even more fab work.
 
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I thought exhaust manifolds were cast iron. Are LS manifolds cast steel?
My initial guess was cast iron, since I made a couple tacks and they immediately broke off, but as I went, the blending of the bead got a lot better sooo....Maybe they're steel? Its all an assumption - I've seen it done dozens of times with good success, so we will see.

If this doesn't work, I can always take cheap SBF headers and weld on LS flanges. I've seen that done with an SBF on3 kit on a 6.0 and it worked very well.
 
My initial guess was cast iron, since I made a couple tacks and they immediately broke off, but as I went, the blending of the bead got a lot better sooo....Maybe they're steel? Its all an assumption - I've seen it done dozens of times with good success, so we will see.

If this doesn't work, I can always take cheap SBF headers and weld on LS flanges. I've seen that done with an SBF on3 kit on a 6.0 and it worked very well.

Simple way to tell has already been done. Grind the metal w/ a grinding/flap wheel. If it doesn't spark, or barely gives off any sparks it's cast iron.
 
A local buddy with a turbo 351w car gave me some stuff tonight:

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The turbo: yes, it's from a tracked vehicle that moves dirt. I'm going to use it to mock up the turbo flange since it's a T6. It'll be March before I can buy the turbo and I refuse to wait.

The tubing is 2.5" for the crossover to use with some bends I already have. Also notice the merge. Teehee I dont have to make one!

I also drilled out the spot welds on the sway bar mounts, ground down the other crap, and began filling holes on the shock towers. I'm hoping Santy Claws will bring me some Scott Rod panels for the inner fenders that I can weld in. I really don't wanna make them again like I did in the Hoopty Build...

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One of these days, I'll take the motor apart and fix the main cap I put in backwards. I'm assuming I need a new bearing?
 
A local buddy with a turbo 351w car gave me some stuff tonight:







The turbo: yes, it's from a tracked vehicle that moves dirt. I'm going to use it to mock up the turbo flange since it's a T6. It'll be March before I can buy the turbo and I refuse to wait.

The tubing is 2.5" for the crossover to use with some bends I already have. Also notice the merge. Teehee I dont have to make one!

I also drilled out the spot welds on the sway bar mounts, ground down the other crap, and began filling holes on the shock towers. I'm hoping Santy Claws will bring me some Scott Rod panels for the inner fenders that I can weld in. I really don't wanna make them again like I did in the Hoopty Build...

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One of these days, I'll take the motor apart and fix the main cap I put in backwards. I'm assuming I need a new bearing?

Oh My God! I have a fraction of the holes in my strut towers that you have. (I'll bet I have 7-8 total per side). That passenger side looks like it has some sort of metal acne. If I would've had that many holes to weld, then grind smooth, I would've just said to hell with that and left it. It's times like these that I'm thankful for the first gen, heavier strut/k member factory construction of the earlier model years.

All I can say to the fact that you have to do soo much more than I do is : Nyaaaah:p

Again, I'm so confused here, and you can blame the onset of senility on me asking this... (again?).

I thought the car that was getting the LS was the one that you cut the entire front clip in front of the strut towers clean off, w/ plans to make some sort of tubular replacement?:shrug: And if this car isn't that, where the hell did that one go?